Murder Rates and Percentages
Due Monday, October 16th Name______
Crime statistics are often presented as either rates or percentages of the population. The murder rate is defined to be the number of homicide victims per a specified number of people in the population, usually 100,000. In this activity, you will learn to calculate murder rates as well as practicing with percentages. Unless otherwise indicated, the data below were taken from the U.S. Department of Justice (
1)In 2004, 12,556 males were murdered and 3,541 females were murdered in the U.S.. What percentage of homicide victims was female?
2)In 2204, how many times more likely was it for a male to be murdered than a female?
3)In 2004, 16,458 males and 1,738 females were convicted of murder. Why does this number not add up to the total number of murders in 2004 that was given above?
4)What percentage of convicted murderers were male?
5)How many times more likely is it for a male to be convicted of murder than for a female?
6)In 2004, 3,314 inmates were being held on death row in the United States, and 59 were put to death. What percentage of death row inmates were put to death in 2004?
7)In 2004, the incarceration rate was 486 convicts per 100,000 citizens of the United States. What percentage of our population is in jail?
8)In 2004, 86% of white homicide victims were killed by whites and 94% of black homicide victims were killed by blacks. Do these data indicate that most homicides are inter- or intra- racial?
9)In 2004, 7,939 homicide victims were white, 7,557 homicide victims were black, and 417 homicide victims belonged to the ‘other’ category. Calculate the percentage of homicide victims that were white, black, and ‘other’.
10)As you calculated above, the percentage of homicide deaths for whites and blacks is similar. However, the following quote was taken from the U.S. department of Justice web site “Racial differences exist, with blacks disproportionately represented among homicide victims and offenders” ( Explain how this could be true.
11)Calculate the U.S. homicide rate for black victims in 2004 per 100,000 black members of the population. There were 7,557 black homicide victims and approximately 37,909,341 black citizens in the U.S. in 2004.
12)Calculate the U.S. homicide rate for white victims in 2004 per 100,000 white members of the population. There were 7,939 white homicide victims and approximately 237,854,954 white citizens in the U.S. in 2004.
13)Revisit theU.S. department of Justice quote “Racial differences exist, with blacks disproportionately represented among homicide victims and offenders”. Given your calculations above, can you explain this quote now?
14)In 1997 there were approximately 267 million citizens of the United States. If there were 18,209 murders, what was the homicide rate per 100,000 citizens?